Fresh off a clean sweep in the July ratings book, KNBC Channel 4's news department will eliminate at least nine union jobs before the end of the year, according to a local representative of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET). Additional layoffs of non-NABET newsroom personnel are also expected at the NBC-owned station.

Officials of ABC and the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, or NABET, said the network was to submit a proposed return-to-work agreement to the union Tuesday evening and that union negotiators would review it today. About 2,400 NABET members, including 600 in Los Angeles, have been locked out of their jobs at ABC since Nov. 2, when they staged a one-day walkout over health insurance issues.

The behind-the-scenes crews that work on such television programs as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The NBC Nightly News" and "Days of Our Lives" have urged viewers to boycott their employer, NBC, during the important ratings month of May. It is the latest tactic in an increasingly bitter labor dispute involving the union representing 800 behind-the-scenes employees at the Burbank studios, the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America.

The strains of a nine-week lockout by Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television unit are beginning to show on members of NABET, the production and technical union whose members have been working without a contract for the last 21 months. At Burbank-based NABET Local 57, the union's second-largest local, some locked-out employees have started a petition campaign to force a vote--thus far barred by the union's leadership--on the company's latest contract proposal.

A major broadcast union and ABC said Friday they've signed a new contract that becomes effective today and lasts until March 31, 1993. The agreement was signed after two of three hold-out units of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians ratified a contract approved earlier by a majority of 2,150 full-time and 350 part-time ABC employees.

Negotiators for NBC and the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians have agreed to meet with a federal mediator in New York for the first time since contract talks stalled two months ago, it was reported Wednesday. About 2,800 NABET employees have been working without a contract since their last three-year pact with the network expired on April 1. NBC made its final contract offer to NABET on April 2 after a month of negotiations in San Diego, but the union refused to ratify it.

KNBC-TV Channel 4 told 16 union members that they would be suspended without pay for participating in an April 24 "sickout" at the station. Citing them for "irresponsible and/or dishonest behavior," KNBC news director Tom Capra docked one day's pay from the 16 National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) members and ordered them suspended for three days, beginning Monday.

The strike may be over, but a top executive of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians says a bid to oust her from office may get support from members of her own local who were involved in the just-ended strike against NBC. Carrie Biggs-Adams, whose 2800-member union had been on strike from June 29 until Saturday, is the elected president of NABET's second-largest chapter, the 700-member Local 53 in Burbank.

About 2,200 behind-the-scenes employees at ABC, including 140 in Los Angeles, were locked out by the network on election day--one of the busiest and most technically demanding days of the year--and Vice President Al Gore canceled an interview with the network at the union's urging. ABC said it would use management employees and replacement workers to help deliver election night returns Tuesday. The National Assn.

About 2,200 off-camera employees of "Monday Night Football" and other ABC programs staged a one-day strike Monday, leading to technical glitches on news shows and a shutdown at two soap operas. The union members planned to return to work at 5 a.m. today, but ABC said they will be locked out until they promise to give the network warning of future strikes. "We cannot and will not allow our programming to be held hostage to sneak attacks by the union," ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover said.

The behind-the-scenes crews that work on such television programs as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The NBC Nightly News" and "Days of Our Lives" have urged viewers to boycott their employer, NBC, during the important ratings month of May. It is the latest tactic in an increasingly bitter labor dispute involving the union representing 800 behind-the-scenes employees at the Burbank studios, the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America.

In an attempt to insulate its members from the tide of losses and cutbacks plaguing public television across the nation, a San Francisco labor union has mounted a highly unusual campaign against KQED, that city's public television station. The National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) is asking would-be contributors to the station to send their membership dues not to KQED but to a special trust fund administered by the union.

Fresh off a clean sweep in the July ratings book, KNBC Channel 4's news department will eliminate at least nine union jobs before the end of the year, according to a local representative of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET). Additional layoffs of non-NABET newsroom personnel are also expected at the NBC-owned station.

Carrie Biggs-Adams, president of Local 53 of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians in Burbank, narrowly avoided recall by the union membership Thursday following a six-month campaign to oust her. Of 803 ballots cast in the bitter recall attempt, 527 favored Biggs-Adams recall and 271 were in favor of retaining her. Five ballots were declared spoiled and not counted.

A major broadcast union and ABC said Friday they've signed a new contract that becomes effective today and lasts until March 31, 1993. The agreement was signed after two of three hold-out units of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians ratified a contract approved earlier by a majority of 2,150 full-time and 350 part-time ABC employees.